CHAPTER 10
~Kyle~
I turn myself around, so that I can lean against the railing at the foot of her bed. I situated myself, then relaxed.
I heard the creak, and if I’d been a bit faster in reacting, I would have sat up.
But, my father was right, and the twinkie’s and ho ho’s are apparently weighing me down. Because I couldn’t move fast enough, and now, I’m laying with my back on the floor, and my feet sticking straight up into the air.
When I leaned back, the railing on the bed broke, and I fell backwards. I landed with a loud thump on her bedroom floor, and I’m sure I can hear the offending noise echoing through the empty house. I think my right arm is being eaten by piranhas, and my head has a hole in it.
The light comes on suddenly, and I hear Isabel’s muffled scream. I hear her rustling around on the bed, and then I see her head peep over the matress. Her eyes are wide, with concern, and I groan at being caught in such a horrible position.
“Are. You. Okay?” She asks.
I look up at her weird tone of voice, and I notice that she’s struggling to contain her laughter. Her hand is over her mouth, and I can tell that she’s smiling because her eyes are all scrunched up. When I said that things were going to change, I didn’t exactly mean our seating positions. “I think I broke my head.”
At my painful omission, Isabel let loose. She collapsed down, one hand over the edge of the mattress, one hand still covering her mouth. She was laughing so hard, that there were tears at the corners of her eyes.
I voice my embarrassment, which only serves to make her laugh even harder.
If my pride hadn’t been so wounded, I probably would have laughed with her.
Just what I needed, though, to land flat on my butt, with my feet in the air while I’m trying to brace myself for a potentially life defining moment.
“ I don’t suppose that you’d keep this little…fall between us?” I ask hopefully.
Isabel shook her head, still laughing. “Everyone” giggle, “in school…” giggle, “is going to hear!”
Her sentence is broken into parts because she has to stop in between words to laugh some more.
Groaning, I twist sideways so that my feet fall off the bed. I rub the back of my head as I raise up and scoot backwards so I can lean against the wall of her bedroom.
I give Isabel a few minutes, and soon we’re both staring at the floor like idiots. We have a comfortable silence between us, and you’d think that the rug on her floor was doing somersaults, the way it's got us both mesmerized.
“I’m really sorry, Iz,” I whisper.
I hear her catch her breath, and she looks up at me, her eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears.
“You know what, Kyle? You’re the one I run to. The one I go to when I need a friend, a shoulder, advice. The one I run to when I have a problem. But you know what? I didn’t have anyone to run to with this problem, because this time, the problem was you.”
“I didn’t mean to make you mad. I don’t know what came over me, I just…All of a sudden, you were mad, and I was mad, and-”
“The problem wasn’t just tonight, Kyle.”
I am confused. “Huh?” I made her mad before?
“The problem has been every night of my life since I was sixteen. Two years, Kyle! Two years of watching you with other girls, two years of pining after you, two years of falling all over myself over you! That’s why I had a problem I couldn’t run to you with. That’s why this was so hard!”
She quit talking and buried her head in hands. I could tell she was crying, but she made no sounds. After a minute or two, she wiped her eyes, and stared straight ahead.
We sit in complete silence, both of us just wondering what we do next. I think that what Isabel has just confessed has hit us both.
I shook my head, and I stood up and crossed over to the bed. This time, I sit near the headboard, after pushing the evil footboard under the bead. I don’t want to have nightmares, so I want it out of my sight. Isabel rolled over, then crawled up the bed to plop down next to me.
“I don’t want to go out with Serena.”
It comes out as a whisper, and I’m not sure she heard me, until she speaks. Her voice is hurt…confused…resigned.
“Kyle, it wasn’t you going out with Serena that was the problem. It was you going out with anyone period.”
My heart started beating faster, and for the first time since I’d known her, I was nervous around Isabel Evans. I couldn’t respond to that, so I just shook my head.
There was another brief silence, and it occurs to me that I’ve never been this quiet so much in my entire life.
“You’re my best friend, Isabel,” I said, finally.
I heard her let out a resigned deep breath, and she was quiet. She sighed, but I didn’t give her a chance to respond.
“But tonight, when I saw you run out, and you were upset, I wasn’t thinking very best friend of you.”
There’s a hushed silence, and I hear her sharp intake of breath. “What were you thinking of me, Kyle?”
She turns to me then, and I wonder, amazed at the fact that I’ve never noticed how beautiful she is. I mean, I always knew she was pretty, and I’ve always known other guys know. What I never noticed before is they way her eyes sparkle with the smallest amount of light. Or how her hair looks so soft and touchable. Or how her cheeks are slightly pink, and her skin is flawless and perfect. The girl in front of me is absolutely gorgeous, and I wonder briefly how she could have ever spent so much of her time with a moron like me who never knew how lucky he had it.
“What do you think of me, Kyle?”
She asked me again, and I reach up to brush a tear from her cheek.
“I think that you’re beautiful. And I think you’re amazing, and I think that every single guy in Roswell is a complete idiot for never noticing it before.”
She smiled, slightly, and she looked down at her hands.
I reached across, and took her hand with one hand, and with the other, I tipped her up to look at me.
“You’re so much more to me than a best friend, Isabel, and I’m sorry I never noticed it.”
~Isabel~
All I can think about, is wow, Kyle has never sounded so…sincere before.
I watch his face, though and know that he’s not telling the truth. I can’t believe this is happening. What do I say? What do I do?
“I’m in love with you.”
Dang it!!! See, it’s the mouth again. Working when I don’t want it to. Kyle just told me he likes me, and I told him I love him.
Excuse me while I go bury myself underneath that huge rock in the corner of mom’s garden out front.
Could you come and dig me out in about 3 years?
“Sorry,” I mumble my apologies, and move to get up off the bed. I’m sure I’ve just scared poor Kyle to death with my admission. I’m afraid to look at him, because he’ll probably have those big bug eyes that cartoon characters get when they see something shocking. But that’s not possible, so if he does have those big bug eyes, then something will be seriously wrong, and I’ll have to take him the Emergency Room, and oh, my poor Kyle will be all bug eyed!
“Isabel, where are you going?”
My retreat is stopped because suddenly Kyle is right in front of me, and he’s got my arm.
“Uh, to crawl underneath the rock in the front yard. I can’t believe I just said that. So, bye.”
He grinned at me then. I can’t believe. Kyle Valenti is mocking me.
“I wish you’d said it a long time ago. Maybe it would have knocked some sense into me.”
“Right, I’ll just go. I’m sorry, and I…what?”
Did he just say what I think he just said?
I think he’s reading my mind. Because he rolled his eyes, and his face lit up with his trademark Kyle Valenti smirk. I used to want to smack that smirk right off of his adorable little face.
“I did just say what you think I said.”
“Oh, okay, then.”
We both stand there, his hand around my wrist, standing a few inches apart for a few minutes.
“Okay, then, good night.”
I pull away, and start to open the bedroom door, but again, he stops me. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“Home,” I answer.
He raises his eyebrow at me. “But you are home.”
I look around. Sure looks like my room. Yep, and there’s my bed that Kyle busted his butt off of 5 minutes ago. “Right,” I say. What is wrong with me? Kyle says he likes me, and I’m like a little girl who can’t remember anything.
“Isabel, look at me sweetheart,” he says, turning my face towards him. “Something’s happening here. I don’t want to be your best friend anymore. I want more.”
“More what? Money? Candy?”
Kyle threw his head back then and laughed. I couldn’t help but giggle with him. I realize that I’m acting like a star struck child. Everything I’ve wanted for the past few years is coming true, and I’m standing in front of Kyle with my jaw on the ground, and my tongue hanging out.
He shook his head, and brought his hand up to cup my cheek. “More you, silly girl. A lot has happened here tonight. I think it’s been a long night, and I think we’re both tired. But we’ve got time, okay?”
I can only nod. If it wasn’t for Kyle, then being called silly at such an important moment would have been…well…silly. But this is Kyle. It’s endearing.
“So, I’m going to go home, and call Serena, and I’ll explain everything to her. If they still want to meet us, then they can. But I want her to know that I’ll be there with you. Not her.”
Again, I nod.
“Get some sleep, Isabel,” he said, his eyes twinkling. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
You guessed it. Another nod. Oooh! I bet I look like an Isabel Evans bobblehead!
He smiled at me, and smoothed the hair back from my face. Then he kissed my forehead, and he was gone.
~Kyle~
When my alarm clock buzzed to wake me up, for the first time I can ever remember, I jumped up and turned it off. I dropped to the floor to do my morning sit-ups, and in record time, I’m sure, I was through. I stood up, to stretch and warm my muscles, and I felt like I hadn’t done any situps at all. Fifteen minutes later, I was showered, dressed, and at the breakfast table without even breaking a sweat or breathing hard.
It was only then I realize that I didn’t even press the snooze button.
I smile to myself.
I’m meeting Isabel this morning.
I mean, I meet her practically every morning, but this time, I’m meeting her.
I smile again, and remember what happened last night, then think about what happened when I got home. I called Serena, to explain. I didn’t exactly know what to tell her.
“Hey, we can still meet up, but it’s a bring your own date kind of thing!”
Yeah, that one would go over like a lead balloon.
So, I opted for the truth. I told her that something had happened between Isabel and I, and that I didn’t want to lead her on by making her think that we had something. She said that it was okay, but asked if she and Scott could still come along. They were new, and really did need friends. I told her of course, and then I was apologizing profusely about the mix up when she had the nerve to laugh at me.
That’s right. She just started giggling and laughing her head off.
I asked her what she was laughing at, and she was telling me that she knew there was something between Isabel and I the moment she saw us together. “It’s in the air around you,” she said.
What the…?
Exactly what is in the air around me? I asked her. This time, she made me giggle.
She said it was love.
~Isabel~
I woke up early this morning, just in time to turn my alarm off before it beeped to wake me up. I couldn’t get out of bed right away, I just stayed there for a few minutes, staring up at my ceiling for a few minutes.
Max came in to see if I had to use the shower first, and I told him to go ahead. He must have seen me staring at my ceiling, cause he walked into the room and looked up at it, searching for whatever it was keeping my attention. He obviously couldn’t see the image of Kyle that I was staring at in my head, so he just gave me a weird look and went to take his shower. Twenty minutes later, I got out of bed, got my robe and my towel and headed to the bathroom. As the door was opening, and Max was coming out, he handed me a bottle of Lysol.
“Here,” he said with a smirk and a grimace at the same time. “You’re going to need this.”
Oh, if I weren’t in such a good mood, I’d probably throw the can at his head, and make him air the bathroom out himself. But just for good measure, I spray about half the can in the door and wait ten minutes before going in.
“Where are you going?” Max asks me at the breakfast table.
“Out,” I said with a smile. I sighed before I took another mouthful of my Honey Bunches of Oats.
“You’re up early for it to be a Saturday,” he said.
“Yeah. Isn’t it great?” I can’t help but smile goofily.
I raise an eyebrow when Max leans over to stare into my cereal bowl. He shakes the bowl around and eyes it closely. “You sure that’s just cereal in there?” he asks, looking up at me. “You’re acting a little…loopy.”
I rolled my eyes, and looked around. I know it’s silly, but I want to make sure no one else hears. I don’t know what Kyle wants tell people, but this is Max. He’s family so it’s okay to tell him, by default, right?
“I’m meeting Kyle this morning,” I whispered.
Max raised an eyebrow at me. “Oookay.” His response is long and drawn out. “So tell me something I don’t know.”
I roll my eyes at him, as if he should know the difference. I look around again to make sure Mom and Dad aren't around. I scoot my chair over and motion him closer. He looks worried, but leans over anyways. “No,” I said. “I’m meeting Kyle.” I look at him and wink, then nod my head, so he zeroes in on my meaning.
Max sits back in his chair and stares at me, then his eyes get wide.
“That’s freaking great!! Michael and Alex owe me twenty five dollars. They said it would take another month for you two to get together. Woohoo!”
Max yelps and jumps up out of his chair, then runs up the stairs. I can only assume it’s to call Michael and Alex.
Wait a minute!! They were taking bets on me and Kyle?!?!
Objects in the Mirror ... (UC, AU, K/I, Teen) COMPLETE
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, Erina, Forum Moderators
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ISLANDGIRL5
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ISLANDGIRL5
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2001 7:55 am
- Location: Good ol' North Cakalaki...lol...
This part is for Pooh, who I hope is not scarred for life for knowing that this fic is written, but I'm not posting it all at once. And also, because I just yesterday found her A/I fic on the CC board, and started reading it. Really, where the heck have I been? That fic is great! And this part is for all you Kyle lovers out there who never fail to leave me feedback. Love you guys!
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!
CHAPTER 11
~Kyle~
I was going to be early going to Isabel’s house. But my dad saved me as I was walking out the door. He told me to go upstairs and turn around and look in the mirror.
I did.
I had a smashed and partially melted Hershey’s kiss stuck to my butt. Right on my butt crack. I almost shrieked. Because, yeah, that would have been impressive. She probably would have thought I crapped in my pants.
But then she would have laughed when I told her I wouldn’t have gone in my pants. Because I’m wearing my Batman boxers.
Can’t pee on the Caped Crusader.
So, finally, after changing my pants, I head down the stairs, and out the door. I walked to my car at the end of the curve, and got in. I turned the key in the ignition, switched stations, to make sure a good song was on, and put it into drive. Then I rolled about 10 feet so that I was in front of Isabel’s house. My bobbing Batman didn’t even bob. I checked my hair in the mirror, then grabbed the keys and walked up the driveway.
I knocked on the door, and waited for her to open it.
My last thought just before the door swung open: Think driving here was a bit overkill?
“You drove here?” Max asked with his eyebrow raised. “And you used the front door. What’s up with that Valenti?”
“Shutup, Max,” I say pushing past him. “Where’s Isabel?”
Max looked around like he was checking to see if anyone else was around. Then he stepped up next to me. “She’s upstairs getting ready to meet you,” he said quietly.
“Ooookaaay,” I said slowly. Is he high?
“No,” he said, stepping closer, and putting his hand on my shoulder. Then he tilted his head to the side, and made a really huge exaggeration out of winking his eye. “I mean she’s getting ready to meet you.”
I narrow my eyes and look at him, but he just stands there, nodding his head, his eyes wide. If I didn’t know he was trying to blink them alternately, I’d think he was twitching.
Oh, holy girlfriends, Batman!!!!
It dawns on me.
Isabel told Max what happened last night.
“So, what happened between you two last night?”
When I realize that I had totally spaced out for about thirty seconds, I also realize that now Max is seated on the bottom step eating a pop-tart. He’s waving the silver package around with the other pastry in it while he’s talking to me.
“Cause Isabel’s acting all loopy. She’s weird. I mean, I had to check her cereal this morning, to make sure it was just cereal and milk in there. Of course, I’ve heard Vodka doesn’t smell, so I don’t’ know.” Max’s face wrinkles in concentration, like he’s thinking really hard. I hope he doesn’t hurt himself.
“I’m not telling you anything, Max,” I said.
He stops chewing for a second and scoffs at me. “Why not?”
“Remember when I told you that I saw Maria’s mom making out with my dad on Maria’s bed, and you swore not to tell everyone?”
He nodded his head.
“Well, the next day, Michael couldn’t stop laughing his head off about it. He kept calling Maria Deputy Deluca. Remember what happened to me after that?”
He shook his head this time.
“It involved a strategically hidden camera, a weeks worth of detention, and an image I could have done without the whole school seeing.”
Max cracked up laughing then, and some of the crumbs spewed from his mouth. Gross.
“That’s right!” he said, laughing even harder now. He had to double over to hold his stomach. “That was when she posted the picture of you-”
“Finish that thought, Max, and I’ll tell Liz who it was that really toilet papered her house last halloween.”
Max’s eyes widened, and he started to cough.
That’s right, Max. Swallow your pop-tart whole.
“You know, choking becomes you,” I say. “Oh, can I have this?” I grabbed the other pop-tart out of his hand and went into the kitchen to get some milk.
What? This is practically my house too.
~Isabel~
“Kyle?”
“In here, babe,” he said.
When I walked into the kitchen, his glass of milk is at his mouth but he’s frozen, and his eyes are wide. I think he realized what he just said.
We’ve always called each other babe, or baby. That’s just us. But now, we’ve both realized that it could mean something else entirely different.
I stop at the kitchen counter as Kyle’s face turns red and he sips his milk then clears his throat.
I wait for him to say something, but he doesn’t, he just takes a bit out of his pop-tart and sips the milk.
Bite.
Sip.
Bite.
Sip.
Bite.
“Kyle?”
Sip.
“Listen, is it going to be weird like this all day? Cause that would be no fun at all.”
He visibly relaxed, and sighed. “Sorry, Is. I just…it’s different now. No more weird, I promise,” he says, holding up the hand with the milk in it in a sign of defeat.
Liz picks that moment to walk in the back door. “Hey Isabel. Kyyyllle,” she says slowly as she looks at him. “Hey, you kind of look like the statue of liberty,” she says. She walks by him and without missing a beat, grabs the rest of his pop-tart. “Thanks, butt buster,” she says, giggling into the hallway.
Kyle’s eyes get big and he points at me. “You told her!”
“I had to!” I say in self defense. “It was going to kill me, keeping that to myself!”
“Oh, you--”
Kyle ran after me then, and I ran around the island. He flipped around, and dove underneath the table, catching me before I could turn around. He grabbed me around the waist and turned me around.
Before I knew it, he had kissed me. I don’t think he meant to do it, though, it just happened. A soft peck on the lips, and then he just kind of stood there like a lost puppy dog.
“What was that for?” I asked softly.
He dropped his arm from around my waist and stepped back. “That was for telling Liz!” he said, pointing at me. “Yeah. Telling Liz. So…don’t do that ever again!” Still pointing at me, he walked out of the kitchen backwards.
He kissed me cause I told Liz?
“Hey!” I hollered as I went after him. “What do I get if I tell the whole school?”
~Kyle~
This day has turned out surprisingly well. Max and Liz came along with us, and Maria too. Michael was pulling an extra shift at the Crashdown, so she brought her cousin Sean. He hit it off really well with Serena.
We’re sitting at the Crashdown, waiting for Alex to pick up Tess from her house, then meet us here. Me and Isabel are across from Max and Liz in the back booth. Scott is sitting at the end of the table in a chair he pulled up, and Serena and Sean are sitting at the counter. Maria disappeared in the back about ten minutes ago when the new waitress hollered that she couldn’t find the ketchup, could Michael help her find it.
Maria rolled her eyes and went after the girl herself.
We didn’t know why until Liz told us that’s the line Maria uses to get Michael into the back room alone.
At least I know why the ketchup bottles on the tables are always full.
It’s been really fun, and I’m glad that the others joined us. It’s taken a lot of the awkwardness out of Isabel and I being alone. I’m okay with it now. At some point, we just kind of grabbed each other’s hands, and it’s been easy coasting from there.
She’s talking to Scott and Max, and Liz is busy eating an ice cream sundae. I’m watching her, as she moves her head, and uses her hands to make her point.
Dude, I am one lucky guy!
“What do you think, Kyle?”
“Huh?” I shake myself out of my thoughts and try to remember what they were talking about. I haven’t got a clue.
Isabel rolled her eyes. “We’re discussing things in movies that could never happen. Scott thinks Face Off was a great movie, and could really happen. I told him it couldn’t because, when the dude had his face off, and he was talking, he was using perfect enunciation. That wouldn’t happen if he didn’t have any lips, which would be taken off with his face. Right?”
Huh? Isabel’s arguing the technicalities of a movie where two dudes exchange faces, then change them back again…but that’s not the fact that she’s arguing…she’s arguing the fact that the man wouldn’t be able to say ‘please’ right with no lips. See what I mean, this girl is great!
“Oh, hey, do you guys think Alex actually uses that blow up doll?”
We all turn to look at Max. Liz stops, mid bit of her Sundae, Scott almost chokes on his soda, and Isabel started coughing.
“What would make you ask that?” I said.
Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Did she look a little…handled to you?”
“You are not serious?” Liz asked.
“Actually no,” he said, laughing. “But it got you talking about something other than movies didn’t it?”
“Tess would kill him!” I said.
“It wasn’t a bad looking doll, though,” Max said.
“Not really,” Scott added. “It kind of really did look like Britney.”
“Especially with that schoolgirl outfit on. Wonder where he got it?” I asked.
It wasn’t even twenty seconds later, Max had a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on his nose, and I could feel the impact of Isabel’s hand on the back of my head.
“I need to go to the bathroom. Liz?” Isabel got up and motioned to Liz. Max didn’t even have time to move, Liz kicked pushed him so hard he practically landed in Scott’s lap.
“Oh, and you, you’re lucky you don’t have a girl to hit you,” Liz said to Scott as she walked by.
“Geez, they just went from sugary to icy in about 2 seconds. They know you were just joking, or are they always abusive?”
I looked at Scott. “Hey bro, welcome to the family.”
Max muttered his agreement.
~Isabel~
Instead of using the customer bathroom, we walk upstairs to Liz’s room and use hers. We can use her makeup to freshen up, chill on her bed. It’s much more comfortable than using the public one.
I walk in, and sit on the pot.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
After I jumped about three inches off the toilet, and plopped back down, I hollered at whoever was knocking.
“I’m busy,” I said.
What’s going on with you and Kyle?
“Uh, Liz, can you let me pee in peace?”
There’s something going on with Kyle and Isabel? I hear as someone else walks in.
Maria, sometimes you are so dense.
I think they’re cute. Oh, Serena. She’s really a cool person. She seems to like Sean, and she’s a lot of fun. She keeps cracking jokes that make us laugh.
“You guys…I can hear you!”
Good, then you’ll hear me when I say I know there’s something going on, and if you don’t spill the beans, then I have a few secrets of my own, and I’ll pour the dang can of them right on top of your head!
There’s no need to resort to violence Maria!
But Liz, I saw them making googly eyes, and holding hands!
Actually, I think Kyle grabbed her butt on the way in the door too.
I changed my mind maybe I don’t like Serena so much.
“He did not grab my butt!” I hollered at the closed door.
I can’t even get any peace in the bathroom for crying out loud! It’s like I’m a mom, and they’re my three children.
I finish my business, wash my hands, and open the door.
I shriek, and am forced to jump back against the sink. Maria, Liz, and Serena are standing in the doorway, eyes wide and wondering, hands on their hips. I can’t even get out of the bathroom, they’re blocking my way.
“Okay, Isabel Amanda Evans. Give up the secret or else,” Maria says threateningly.
“I’m not saying anything until you let me out of this bathroom.”
“Promise you won’t try to run?” Maria asks.
Liz looks at Serena. “It’s happened before. When we try to ask Isabel a question, that’s important, that puts her in front of the firing squad, she runs.”
“I do not run. I opt for pleading the fifth.”
“She runs,” Maria said.
“I’m not running for crying out loud!” I say. Really, it’s a wonder we’re not all in an institution, I feel like we’re all crazy, and should be locked up. But at least we understand each other perfectly.
“Fine,” Maria said. She looked around her, then behind her, and then quickly reached to the dresser on the other side of Liz. “Aha!” she said triumphantly. She pulled out something, and pushed a button. Whoosh. It made a sound and lit up red. “Run you must not, or light you up, I will,” she says, waving a toy light saber at me.
See what I mean? Crazy. And even crazier is the fact that I really am scared.
“Maria, if you don’t get out of my way, I will take that light saber, and put it somewhere it’s light will never be seen again. You will feel it every time you so much as wiggle your toe.”
Maria puts the light saber down. She looks at Liz out of the corner of her eye, and I almost giggle when I see Serena backing slowly away from the bathroom door.
“Sheesh, Isabel. No need to get violent. Just doing a little friendly interrogation with Liz’s light saber.”
It’s only then that it dawns on me to wonder why Liz has a light saber anyway. She hates Star Wars. “You have a light saber?” I ask.
“That’s not mine,” Liz says in defense. “It’s Alex’s.”
“Does Tess know you’ve been playing with Alex’s saber?” Maria asks. “Oh….ewww!” Maria’s eyes get big and she drops it, then wipes her hands on her pants. “You and Alex?”
Liz rolls her eyes. “Yuck, you guys. Gross. He brought it here to show your boyfriend one day last week when Michael was working the grill. Then Pam Troy and her…You know what? Why am I explaining myself to you? You are the one we came up here to interrogate.”
“You were playing with Alex, his saber, Michael and Pam Troy?” Maria asked with a raised eyebrow. “Liz, never knew you had it in you!”
“Maria!” she screams.
“She’s right,” Maria says, turning to me again. “We can inquire about Liz’s freetime later. So spill, girlfriend. You, Kyle, the beans?”
I rolled my eyes and plopped down on Liz’s bed. Serena sat down next to me, Liz near my feet, and Maria hopped onto the dresser.
“It’s great!” I said.
“I knew it!” Liz exclaimed. “Tell me you guys didn’t do the nasty, and that you’re waiting for marriage like me and Max,” she said with an apprehensive look.
“Okay, first of all, Kyle and I just talked, about our feelings changing. We decided we’re going to give it a go.”
“And?” Serena prodded.
“And we didn’t do the nasty,” I said.
“Come on, Isabel!” Serena said, practically bursting with excitement. It really is scary how well she fits in.
“And he kissed me.”
I’m sure the diners in the restaurant could hear the squeals.
~Kyle~
What the heck was that?
We hear a squeal coming from upstairs, and it makes us jump. I look at Max, we look at Scott, and suddenly, we’re following Sean through the back doors, up the apartment steps and into the front door.
I am thankful that the entire staff knows us, and knows that we pretty much do what we want in that restaurant.
Liz’s dad hollers a quick ‘No running in the apartment,’ boys as we run by the kitchen. We holler our agreement and press on.
We’re at the top of the stairs when we hear it.
A sound that makes any mans blood run thick. A phrase that a man shouldn’t have to hear until he is at least 25 years old. It’s something that makes the walls close in around you, and the floor start to spin.
Eeeeek!
We cringe at the awful nails-on-chalkboard sound again, but it’s the next phrase I hear that has me heading back down the stairs faster than I’ve ever run before.
“This is going to be so much fun, Isabel, we have to get you a Bride’s magazine!”
Author's note.....Just kill me now. I can't believe I used the word 'pee' twice in one part. I can't believe I used the word, period!
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!
CHAPTER 11
~Kyle~
I was going to be early going to Isabel’s house. But my dad saved me as I was walking out the door. He told me to go upstairs and turn around and look in the mirror.
I did.
I had a smashed and partially melted Hershey’s kiss stuck to my butt. Right on my butt crack. I almost shrieked. Because, yeah, that would have been impressive. She probably would have thought I crapped in my pants.
But then she would have laughed when I told her I wouldn’t have gone in my pants. Because I’m wearing my Batman boxers.
Can’t pee on the Caped Crusader.
So, finally, after changing my pants, I head down the stairs, and out the door. I walked to my car at the end of the curve, and got in. I turned the key in the ignition, switched stations, to make sure a good song was on, and put it into drive. Then I rolled about 10 feet so that I was in front of Isabel’s house. My bobbing Batman didn’t even bob. I checked my hair in the mirror, then grabbed the keys and walked up the driveway.
I knocked on the door, and waited for her to open it.
My last thought just before the door swung open: Think driving here was a bit overkill?
“You drove here?” Max asked with his eyebrow raised. “And you used the front door. What’s up with that Valenti?”
“Shutup, Max,” I say pushing past him. “Where’s Isabel?”
Max looked around like he was checking to see if anyone else was around. Then he stepped up next to me. “She’s upstairs getting ready to meet you,” he said quietly.
“Ooookaaay,” I said slowly. Is he high?
“No,” he said, stepping closer, and putting his hand on my shoulder. Then he tilted his head to the side, and made a really huge exaggeration out of winking his eye. “I mean she’s getting ready to meet you.”
I narrow my eyes and look at him, but he just stands there, nodding his head, his eyes wide. If I didn’t know he was trying to blink them alternately, I’d think he was twitching.
Oh, holy girlfriends, Batman!!!!
It dawns on me.
Isabel told Max what happened last night.
“So, what happened between you two last night?”
When I realize that I had totally spaced out for about thirty seconds, I also realize that now Max is seated on the bottom step eating a pop-tart. He’s waving the silver package around with the other pastry in it while he’s talking to me.
“Cause Isabel’s acting all loopy. She’s weird. I mean, I had to check her cereal this morning, to make sure it was just cereal and milk in there. Of course, I’ve heard Vodka doesn’t smell, so I don’t’ know.” Max’s face wrinkles in concentration, like he’s thinking really hard. I hope he doesn’t hurt himself.
“I’m not telling you anything, Max,” I said.
He stops chewing for a second and scoffs at me. “Why not?”
“Remember when I told you that I saw Maria’s mom making out with my dad on Maria’s bed, and you swore not to tell everyone?”
He nodded his head.
“Well, the next day, Michael couldn’t stop laughing his head off about it. He kept calling Maria Deputy Deluca. Remember what happened to me after that?”
He shook his head this time.
“It involved a strategically hidden camera, a weeks worth of detention, and an image I could have done without the whole school seeing.”
Max cracked up laughing then, and some of the crumbs spewed from his mouth. Gross.
“That’s right!” he said, laughing even harder now. He had to double over to hold his stomach. “That was when she posted the picture of you-”
“Finish that thought, Max, and I’ll tell Liz who it was that really toilet papered her house last halloween.”
Max’s eyes widened, and he started to cough.
That’s right, Max. Swallow your pop-tart whole.
“You know, choking becomes you,” I say. “Oh, can I have this?” I grabbed the other pop-tart out of his hand and went into the kitchen to get some milk.
What? This is practically my house too.
~Isabel~
“Kyle?”
“In here, babe,” he said.
When I walked into the kitchen, his glass of milk is at his mouth but he’s frozen, and his eyes are wide. I think he realized what he just said.
We’ve always called each other babe, or baby. That’s just us. But now, we’ve both realized that it could mean something else entirely different.
I stop at the kitchen counter as Kyle’s face turns red and he sips his milk then clears his throat.
I wait for him to say something, but he doesn’t, he just takes a bit out of his pop-tart and sips the milk.
Bite.
Sip.
Bite.
Sip.
Bite.
“Kyle?”
Sip.
“Listen, is it going to be weird like this all day? Cause that would be no fun at all.”
He visibly relaxed, and sighed. “Sorry, Is. I just…it’s different now. No more weird, I promise,” he says, holding up the hand with the milk in it in a sign of defeat.
Liz picks that moment to walk in the back door. “Hey Isabel. Kyyyllle,” she says slowly as she looks at him. “Hey, you kind of look like the statue of liberty,” she says. She walks by him and without missing a beat, grabs the rest of his pop-tart. “Thanks, butt buster,” she says, giggling into the hallway.
Kyle’s eyes get big and he points at me. “You told her!”
“I had to!” I say in self defense. “It was going to kill me, keeping that to myself!”
“Oh, you--”
Kyle ran after me then, and I ran around the island. He flipped around, and dove underneath the table, catching me before I could turn around. He grabbed me around the waist and turned me around.
Before I knew it, he had kissed me. I don’t think he meant to do it, though, it just happened. A soft peck on the lips, and then he just kind of stood there like a lost puppy dog.
“What was that for?” I asked softly.
He dropped his arm from around my waist and stepped back. “That was for telling Liz!” he said, pointing at me. “Yeah. Telling Liz. So…don’t do that ever again!” Still pointing at me, he walked out of the kitchen backwards.
He kissed me cause I told Liz?
“Hey!” I hollered as I went after him. “What do I get if I tell the whole school?”
~Kyle~
This day has turned out surprisingly well. Max and Liz came along with us, and Maria too. Michael was pulling an extra shift at the Crashdown, so she brought her cousin Sean. He hit it off really well with Serena.
We’re sitting at the Crashdown, waiting for Alex to pick up Tess from her house, then meet us here. Me and Isabel are across from Max and Liz in the back booth. Scott is sitting at the end of the table in a chair he pulled up, and Serena and Sean are sitting at the counter. Maria disappeared in the back about ten minutes ago when the new waitress hollered that she couldn’t find the ketchup, could Michael help her find it.
Maria rolled her eyes and went after the girl herself.
We didn’t know why until Liz told us that’s the line Maria uses to get Michael into the back room alone.
At least I know why the ketchup bottles on the tables are always full.
It’s been really fun, and I’m glad that the others joined us. It’s taken a lot of the awkwardness out of Isabel and I being alone. I’m okay with it now. At some point, we just kind of grabbed each other’s hands, and it’s been easy coasting from there.
She’s talking to Scott and Max, and Liz is busy eating an ice cream sundae. I’m watching her, as she moves her head, and uses her hands to make her point.
Dude, I am one lucky guy!
“What do you think, Kyle?”
“Huh?” I shake myself out of my thoughts and try to remember what they were talking about. I haven’t got a clue.
Isabel rolled her eyes. “We’re discussing things in movies that could never happen. Scott thinks Face Off was a great movie, and could really happen. I told him it couldn’t because, when the dude had his face off, and he was talking, he was using perfect enunciation. That wouldn’t happen if he didn’t have any lips, which would be taken off with his face. Right?”
Huh? Isabel’s arguing the technicalities of a movie where two dudes exchange faces, then change them back again…but that’s not the fact that she’s arguing…she’s arguing the fact that the man wouldn’t be able to say ‘please’ right with no lips. See what I mean, this girl is great!
“Oh, hey, do you guys think Alex actually uses that blow up doll?”
We all turn to look at Max. Liz stops, mid bit of her Sundae, Scott almost chokes on his soda, and Isabel started coughing.
“What would make you ask that?” I said.
Max shrugged. “I don’t know. Did she look a little…handled to you?”
“You are not serious?” Liz asked.
“Actually no,” he said, laughing. “But it got you talking about something other than movies didn’t it?”
“Tess would kill him!” I said.
“It wasn’t a bad looking doll, though,” Max said.
“Not really,” Scott added. “It kind of really did look like Britney.”
“Especially with that schoolgirl outfit on. Wonder where he got it?” I asked.
It wasn’t even twenty seconds later, Max had a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce on his nose, and I could feel the impact of Isabel’s hand on the back of my head.
“I need to go to the bathroom. Liz?” Isabel got up and motioned to Liz. Max didn’t even have time to move, Liz kicked pushed him so hard he practically landed in Scott’s lap.
“Oh, and you, you’re lucky you don’t have a girl to hit you,” Liz said to Scott as she walked by.
“Geez, they just went from sugary to icy in about 2 seconds. They know you were just joking, or are they always abusive?”
I looked at Scott. “Hey bro, welcome to the family.”
Max muttered his agreement.
~Isabel~
Instead of using the customer bathroom, we walk upstairs to Liz’s room and use hers. We can use her makeup to freshen up, chill on her bed. It’s much more comfortable than using the public one.
I walk in, and sit on the pot.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK
After I jumped about three inches off the toilet, and plopped back down, I hollered at whoever was knocking.
“I’m busy,” I said.
What’s going on with you and Kyle?
“Uh, Liz, can you let me pee in peace?”
There’s something going on with Kyle and Isabel? I hear as someone else walks in.
Maria, sometimes you are so dense.
I think they’re cute. Oh, Serena. She’s really a cool person. She seems to like Sean, and she’s a lot of fun. She keeps cracking jokes that make us laugh.
“You guys…I can hear you!”
Good, then you’ll hear me when I say I know there’s something going on, and if you don’t spill the beans, then I have a few secrets of my own, and I’ll pour the dang can of them right on top of your head!
There’s no need to resort to violence Maria!
But Liz, I saw them making googly eyes, and holding hands!
Actually, I think Kyle grabbed her butt on the way in the door too.
I changed my mind maybe I don’t like Serena so much.
“He did not grab my butt!” I hollered at the closed door.
I can’t even get any peace in the bathroom for crying out loud! It’s like I’m a mom, and they’re my three children.
I finish my business, wash my hands, and open the door.
I shriek, and am forced to jump back against the sink. Maria, Liz, and Serena are standing in the doorway, eyes wide and wondering, hands on their hips. I can’t even get out of the bathroom, they’re blocking my way.
“Okay, Isabel Amanda Evans. Give up the secret or else,” Maria says threateningly.
“I’m not saying anything until you let me out of this bathroom.”
“Promise you won’t try to run?” Maria asks.
Liz looks at Serena. “It’s happened before. When we try to ask Isabel a question, that’s important, that puts her in front of the firing squad, she runs.”
“I do not run. I opt for pleading the fifth.”
“She runs,” Maria said.
“I’m not running for crying out loud!” I say. Really, it’s a wonder we’re not all in an institution, I feel like we’re all crazy, and should be locked up. But at least we understand each other perfectly.
“Fine,” Maria said. She looked around her, then behind her, and then quickly reached to the dresser on the other side of Liz. “Aha!” she said triumphantly. She pulled out something, and pushed a button. Whoosh. It made a sound and lit up red. “Run you must not, or light you up, I will,” she says, waving a toy light saber at me.
See what I mean? Crazy. And even crazier is the fact that I really am scared.
“Maria, if you don’t get out of my way, I will take that light saber, and put it somewhere it’s light will never be seen again. You will feel it every time you so much as wiggle your toe.”
Maria puts the light saber down. She looks at Liz out of the corner of her eye, and I almost giggle when I see Serena backing slowly away from the bathroom door.
“Sheesh, Isabel. No need to get violent. Just doing a little friendly interrogation with Liz’s light saber.”
It’s only then that it dawns on me to wonder why Liz has a light saber anyway. She hates Star Wars. “You have a light saber?” I ask.
“That’s not mine,” Liz says in defense. “It’s Alex’s.”
“Does Tess know you’ve been playing with Alex’s saber?” Maria asks. “Oh….ewww!” Maria’s eyes get big and she drops it, then wipes her hands on her pants. “You and Alex?”
Liz rolls her eyes. “Yuck, you guys. Gross. He brought it here to show your boyfriend one day last week when Michael was working the grill. Then Pam Troy and her…You know what? Why am I explaining myself to you? You are the one we came up here to interrogate.”
“You were playing with Alex, his saber, Michael and Pam Troy?” Maria asked with a raised eyebrow. “Liz, never knew you had it in you!”
“Maria!” she screams.
“She’s right,” Maria says, turning to me again. “We can inquire about Liz’s freetime later. So spill, girlfriend. You, Kyle, the beans?”
I rolled my eyes and plopped down on Liz’s bed. Serena sat down next to me, Liz near my feet, and Maria hopped onto the dresser.
“It’s great!” I said.
“I knew it!” Liz exclaimed. “Tell me you guys didn’t do the nasty, and that you’re waiting for marriage like me and Max,” she said with an apprehensive look.
“Okay, first of all, Kyle and I just talked, about our feelings changing. We decided we’re going to give it a go.”
“And?” Serena prodded.
“And we didn’t do the nasty,” I said.
“Come on, Isabel!” Serena said, practically bursting with excitement. It really is scary how well she fits in.
“And he kissed me.”
I’m sure the diners in the restaurant could hear the squeals.
~Kyle~
What the heck was that?
We hear a squeal coming from upstairs, and it makes us jump. I look at Max, we look at Scott, and suddenly, we’re following Sean through the back doors, up the apartment steps and into the front door.
I am thankful that the entire staff knows us, and knows that we pretty much do what we want in that restaurant.
Liz’s dad hollers a quick ‘No running in the apartment,’ boys as we run by the kitchen. We holler our agreement and press on.
We’re at the top of the stairs when we hear it.
A sound that makes any mans blood run thick. A phrase that a man shouldn’t have to hear until he is at least 25 years old. It’s something that makes the walls close in around you, and the floor start to spin.
Eeeeek!
We cringe at the awful nails-on-chalkboard sound again, but it’s the next phrase I hear that has me heading back down the stairs faster than I’ve ever run before.
“This is going to be so much fun, Isabel, we have to get you a Bride’s magazine!”
Author's note.....Just kill me now. I can't believe I used the word 'pee' twice in one part. I can't believe I used the word, period!
I once heard that dust is made up of human skin cells. If that's true, I think there's a naked man under my bed!
-
ISLANDGIRL5
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 346
- Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2001 7:55 am
- Location: Good ol' North Cakalaki...lol...
Oh, looky there. A pig just flew by my window!
Howdy folks. This part is long overdue, sad yes, I know, considering the story is done. heee.
Pooh is now on my Myspace friends list, and I've been told, from the woman herself, that she is not above stalking. So I'm actually scared of what might happen if I don't post this. heee.
Enjoy!
*********************
CHAPTER 12
~Isabel~
“Isabel Evans!” Maria walked up to the dressing room door and pounded on it, her hands on her hips. “If you do not get out here right this instant, I’m coming in!”
“Isabel, I can’t hold her back much longer!” Liz shouted. “She’ll come in and drag you out in your underwear, you know she will!”
“But I can’t figure this freaking thing out! There’s so many straps, and snaps, and….where the heck does this thing go?!”
Tess jumped up from her seat on the floor next to the dressing room. “I’ll help her, Maria. You stay here. No violence today, remember?”
I was waiting for Tess when I heard an eerily familiar..
Tess knocked on the door of my dressing room and turned the knob, going in. “I’m here to help,” she said.
“Whose idea was this?” Isabel muttered as she attempted to reach behind her to tie a strap.
“Yours, Isabel,” Tess said as she reached out and turned Isabel around so she could tie the strap behind her. “You wanted Liz to try the red dress. She wanted the black one. You suggested it would be fun to each pick a dress for the other girls to try on. Four dresses for each of us, and we have to pick from those dresses. Remember?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I forgot that Maria doesn’t exactly go with conventional.”
“You’re right,” Tess said sweetly. She smiled satisfactorily as she grabbed two of the ribbons from the front of my dress and pulled them hard, squeezing them tightly. I grunted at the loss of air. “That’s why the dress she’s picked out for me to try as soon as there’s an empty dressing room is orange.” Now, that made me laugh. Tess took that opportunity to pull the ribbons once more. “With feathers,” she added sweetly.
“Fine, fine, I’m sorry, but you’re going to kill me if you don’t stop pulling on those things!”
Hey! There will be no pulling of the anythings while you two are in there alone!
“Shut up, Liz!” I hollered.
“Isabel, this dress is gorgeous!”
Isabel turned around and stared at herself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous. It was a deep crimson color, and strapless. The bodice was made up of two wide ribbons of fabric that came from the front of the dress, near my belly button, and criss-crossed in front, tying behind my neck and leaving the long flowing pieces to drape down my back. There were several more ribbons of fabric at different intervals on the front of the dress that tied behind my back. When I was all tied up, and the dress was on, I had four lines of fabric running across my back, and one around my neck, leaving several flowing strips of the soft fabric to float along behind me when I moved. The skirt was long and flowing, just barely skimming the top of the floor.
Without realizing it, I let out a deep, resigned breath.
“Oh, Isabel, you don’t like it?” Tess asked, concerned.
“It’s not that, Tess,” I said.
“Is it really too tight? I can undo it some,” Tess replied.
I shook my head. “It’s not too tight.”
Tess shook her head, worried. “Is it the color?”
I let out a deep sigh. “It’s not the dress,” I said, trying my best to make my bottom lip quiver.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I just realized I have to tell Maria she was right about this dress, her head is going to double in size!”
We both started giggling uncontrollably. After a few seconds, Tess opened the door and E stepped out behind her.
“Oh. My. Freaking. Goodness! Kyle Valenti is going to crap in his pants when he sees you in that dress!” Liz exclaimed.
“Not to mention that he’ll hate me when it comes time for him to untie all those ribbons to get that thing off of you!”
“Maria!” I chided. “Maria, Kyle and I are not sleeping together. Neither one of us is ready for that, and we’re happy the way we are.”
“Well, you may not be sleeping together,” Maria said. “But he’ll sure want to when you sees you in that.”
I was about to respond when the dressing room door next to theirs opened, and three familiar faces paraded out.
“But really, Pam, does this make my butt look big?”
Maria scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It ain’t the dress, honey. I mean, does the elephant make the zoo look big?”
I had to bite my tongue. Pam and her minions all stand there looking at Maria with these “Oh, no she didn’t” looks on their faces, but none of them want to say anything back. Pam looks like a fish, cause her mouth keeps opening and closing, but there’s no sound coming out. Maria just stands there, staring them down. Finally, Pam huffs and stomps her foot. Then they all three turn around and walk out. It’s only a few seconds later when we hear the alarms at the front door go off. We peeked out of the dressing room, and notice Pam red faced, and looking totally embarrassed. Looks like she forgot to take the dress off before she stomped out.
An hour and a half later, we all leave the store, prom dresses in hand. Looks like Maria was right, and as much as I don’t want to tell her, I let her know she did a great job in picking out our dresses.
“Thank you,” she says back. “I’ll accept cash, credit, or endless flattery.”
~Kyle~
“Pssst, hey, Max,” I said, motioning him over.
“Did he move it?”
Max looks at me weird and raises an eyebrow. “Did he move what?” he asks slowly.
“You know,” I said. I looked around to make sure the tailor wasn’t around. “It.”
“Kyle, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I rolled my eyes. “Max, didn’t you watch Friends? That one episode where Joey went to the tailor’s shop and—“
I stopped talking when Max busted out laughing. “You watch Friends?” he asks.
“Max! This is not funny! I’m having serious man-issues here!”
Max tries to put on a somber face, but I can tell he wants to laugh at me. By the time I finish explaining, he’s laughing so hard that he can hardly talk back to me.
“No,” Max says. “He---is---not---going---to---to---tomoveit!” He finishes in one breath, and busts out laughing. He’s still laughing when Michael and Alex walk out from the back room. He calls them over, and when the man calls my name, and says he’s ready for me, I hear all three of them snicker as I walk past.
“So, Kyle, what kind of tux are you looking for?” the man asks me.
He’s a cool looking guy. Doesn’t look like a sicko or anything. But I’ve never been fitted for a tux before, and I’m a bit apprehensive.
“Uh, black?”
The man nods his head.
“Tails?”
I swallow thickly. Did he just ask about my tail? “Huh?” It’s comes out like a squeak.
“Your tux,” he said. “Traditional, or tails in the back?”
I don’t know what tails are, but it doesn’t sound cool, and Isabel will kill me if my pants have something hanging from them. “Traditional.”
He nods again. “How tall are you, and how much do you weigh?”
“Five seven, and about 180?”
The man nods again, and he’s gone. I’m nervous waiting for him to come back. I’m afraid that I’ll end up like Joey. It’s a scary thought. I mean, if it happened to Joey, it could happen to me, right? I swear, if the tailor touches it, I’ll probably smack him. Or if—
“Okay, let me see it.”
He wants to see it!?!?!?! I choke on my thoughts, and whirl around, to see the man standing behind me. He’s turned in the opposite direction. “Give it here,” he said, and I see an arm reach out and hand him three tuxedos.
“Here,” he said. “Try these on.”
Half an hour later, I’m out the door, with a tuxedo, shoes, and my manhood all intact.
Proms suck.
~Isabel~
Things have been going really well for me and Kyle. It’s been a couple months, and we’re still going strong. You would think that it’s weird dating your best friend, but it’s really not. We already knew everything about each other. And we didn’t have to do any of that awkward getting to know you stuff. Not even our parents were surprised. Kyle’s dad kept giving us the “I told you so” look the first time we told him we were together, and it was really funny, cause it was embarrassing Kyle.
Our friends teased us at first. Mercilessly. But it’s over, and everyone is used to the idea.
“Hey, Isabel. You and Farmer Bob going bowling with us tonight?”
My first thought: Who is Farmer Bob?
Kyle walks through the door, and I spit out the mouthful of milk I was about to swallow.
My second thought: I hope that’s a corn cob.
Kyle has on overalls, with hay hanging out of every pocket visible. He’s got on a straw hat with a piece of wheat sticking out of it. Under his overalls is a red and white plaid shirt, and he’s got on heavy work boots. There is a suspicious looking object in the front pocket of his overalls that I’m too afraid to ask about.
“Kyle, you are not going out in public in that?”
Kyle shrugs. “We made a bet,” he says sheepishly. “Me and Michael bet Max and Alex that we could beat them on a Nintendo game. The losers had to wear whatever costumes the winners picked out for them to the bowling alley tonight.”
“Wait a minute. Did you say Michael? What does he-”
Maria stops off mid-sentence when Michael walks in.
This time, I crack up laughing. Michael has on green tights, and shoes with little bells on them. He’s got on a green leotard with long green sleeves, and for the first time ever in my life, I notice that Michael Guerin isn’t such a little boy. As if the outfit wasn’t enough, he’s got on a green triangle shaped hat with a red feather in it. And the scowl on his face is priceless.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Maria says. She’s staring at Michael, her mouth wide open, but I know what’s coming next. The corners of her mouth are already twitching.
“One snicker from you, Tinkerbell, and it’s on,” he grunts.
Maria can’t hold it any longer, and erupts into laughter. Michael glares at her and darts around the table to grab her, but she’s too quick.
As Maria’s squeals echo throughout the house, I hear Michael’s shoes ringing as he runs after her.
“I don’t get it, Kyle. You have every Nintendo ever made. You have all 3 Playstations, and 2 X-boxes. How could you lose?”
He sighs. “They challenged us to a game of Jeopardy, Isabel!”
That’s when I crack up laughing, and end up running down the hall myself.
~Kyle~
We were only at the bowling alley for about thirty minutes before the guys took mercy on Michael and let him take his costume off. He made me go to the Wal-Mart across the street to buy him some jeans and a t-shirt. I argued with him, but he argued that he had to be Peter Pan while I at least got to look like a man. So I relented and let the poor guy out of his misery.
Isabel went with me, and she talked me out of buying the pink ‘Vote for Pedro’ shirt. I wasn’t going to give in, but Isabel started fluttering her lashes and giving me the puppy dog eyes.
Michael is so lucky that Isabel is so cute.
“You’re lucky Isabel was with me,” I tell him when we get back to the bowling alley. I throw him the bag, and he opens it and takes his clothes out.
“Why is that?” he asks.
“I wanted to get the pink “Vote for Pedro” shirt. Napoleon Dynamite is the man.”
“Kyle, if you had come back with that shirt, I would have had to napoleon dynamite your rear end.”
“Ouch, Maria,” that hurts, I said, backing away slowly.
“I hate Napoleon Dynamite,” she said. “And I’d rather date Peter Pan.”
“Hey!”
Maria turns to Michael. He’s scowling at her.
“But don’t worry, Mikey,” she says. “I like you just the way you are most of all.”
Michael’s eyes immediately soften, and he grins at her.
That was so cheesy. I can’t believe he fell for it.
We headed to our lane to bowl. I can’t help but grimace when I notice Pam and a bunch of other girls from school a few lanes down. I hope this is an uneventful night.
“So, where do you want to go eat before the prom?”
Bowling is over, and all the guys have gone home to take the girls back. Isabel and I are sitting on her front porch, talking for a few minutes. We’re on the porch swing, and I’m sitting sideways. She’s in front of me with her head against my chest, and my arms are around her waist.
“It doesn’t really matter, Kyle,” she said. “I’m so excited, we could eat at McDonald’s and I would be happy.”
“I really love Big Mac’s.”
Her head turned, like 360 degrees and she elbowed me in the stomach. Hard.
“Kyle Valenti, that better be a joke, because I am not eating at McDonald’s before my prom!”
“But you said you didn’t really care where we ate!” I said in defense.
“Kyle! I didn’t really mean it! It was just something I said to flatter you! I hate McDonald’s, and you know that!”
“That’s grounds for a break up, woman.”
Isabel’s eyes get wide then, and her mouth opens in a big “O”. She doesn’t say another word. She closes her mouth, and her eyes well up with tears. She gets up off the swing, and heads in the front door.
“So does that mean you really don’t want to go to McDonald’s?” I holler.
She answers me by slamming the door in my face.
I guess she didn’t like my joke.
I only sit there for about two more minutes. I thought she’d come back, but she didn’t. I open the front door and stick my head in. She’s sitting on the bottom step, with her arms on her knees, and her head in her arms.
“Isabel?”
“What took you so long to come after me?” she whispers.
I shake my head, wondering what’s wrong, and sit next to her on the steps.
“Pam cornered me at the bowling alley,” she says quietly.
“Isabel--”
“She said that I was stupid for not having sex with you. She said that you would leave me for someone that would put out, and it was only a matter of time.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. I looked at her, and reached underneath her chin to make her look up at me.
“Isabel, don’t you get it by now? I am absolutely, head over heels crazy in love with you. I know everything about you, and probably more than a boyfriend should know about his girlfriend.”
She raises her eyebrows and gives me a “Watch it, mister” Maria Deluca look.
“We’ve been best friends forever,” I explain to her.
She gets it and nods her head.
“Sex doesn’t have anything to do with why I am with you. I love you because you make me laugh. I love you because you like to eat with your fingers. I love you because you actually know what first down is, and that the Braves play baseball, and not basketball. I love you because you always eat the walnuts off of my Sunday, because you know I hate them. I love you because you…well, because you’re you.”
“Oh, Kyle, I love you too,” she says, then she kisses me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I do register the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever said I love you in more than a best friend way, and its never felt more natural to me.
She pulls away and starts to wipe at her eyes.
“I guess I over reacted a moment ago,” she said sheepishly. “I guess I let her get to me, and what you said just rubbed me the wrong way.”
“I could rub you the right way.”
She throws her head back and laughs then, and it’s a beautiful sound.
“In all seriousness, we really do need to decide where we want to go eat,” she said.
“Well, I was just joking about McDonald’s,” I said.
“I know you were,” she replied as we turned sideways to sit on the steps the same way we were on the porch swing outside.
“I mean, there’s always Burger King.”
~Isabel~
When Kyle finally went home, I called Liz. She wasn’t home yet, so I called Maria, who was just getting home. We called Tess on three way, and we decided to have a sleep over. Last minute hang out. They all decided we’d do it at my house, since last time it was at Liz’s house, and Maria’s mom was repainting. Again. Added to that was the fact that my parents had gone to the beach house for the weekend.
An hour later, we’d tracked Liz down and we were all in my room. I sent Max to Kyle’s for the night, even though he tried his hardest to make an excuse to stay here since Liz was here. She finally had to take him in a corner and talk to him. Maria asked her what she said to make him leave so fast, but I stopped her. I did not want to know what Liz Parker promised my brother to make him smile like that.
“Hey, guys, you want to hear something terrible?”
They all crowded around into a circle, and I told them what happened, starting with Pam confronting me at the bowling alley.
When I was done, they were all upset. Maria was mad because Pam actually had the nerve to tell me that Kyle would break up with me if I didn’t sleep with him. Liz was mad because I hadn’t told them about it when it happened. And Tess was mad because she didn’t like McDonald’s or Burger King.
We were plotting our revenge on Pam and company when we heard a suspicious sounding whooping from outside the window.
“What is that?” Maria asked.
We all jumped to the windows to look out. It was dark outside, and we couldn’t see anything.
When we heard a high pitched yell, I jumped up and turned off the bedroom light so we could see.
It was dark outside, and it seemed like there were no lights on on the entire street.
“There’s someone in the bushes!” Liz whispered.
“Where?” I asked.
“Holy Crap, it’s someone trying to break into Kyle’s house!” Maria whispered back. “Warn him!”
“His car’s gone!” Tess said. “He and Max must have gone out. Oh no, they’re going to steal his Playstation!”
We watched, as two figures, dressed in black made their way around the side of Kyle’s house. We waited, knowing that when they busted the window, the alarm would ring. But when the two figures huddled together and took off running towards our house, the crap hit the fun.
“Call the FBI!” Tess whispered loudly.
“No, the firefighters!” Maria whispered.
I looked at her and even in the dim light of the street lamp from outside my window, she could see my confused look.
“What?” She asked in hushed tones. “Firefighters are always hot, and if I get attacked and need mouth to mouth, he better be cute!”
“Come on, we need to make sure the doors are locked!” I say excitedly. My heart is beating a mile a minute, and I silently curse myself for making Max leave.
Seconds later, we’re in the kitchen, and I make my way to the kitchen door.
“Did you hear that?” Maria asked. Her eyes are wide and her pupils shining in the dim light. We listen carefully, and hear a soft clicking sound.
“Someones in the house, quick, grab a weapon!” I reach behind me and grab a meat cleaver from the canister on the cabinet.
We’re all standing there like idiots when we hear a low growl from the other side of the kitchen door. It doesn’t take us long to panic, and we scream, running in four different directions.
I head out the kitchen door into the living room, Maria heads out the back door, Liz heads into the basement, and Tess leaves through the side door into the den.
When I run around the table and hit a hard body, I swing the cleaver with all my might, and scream. Someone grabs my arm and wrestles the cleaver from my hand. I start to pummel them with my fist.
“Holy Crap, Isabel, what are you doing!?”
I stop pounding with my fists and dive towards the light switch.
“Michael Guerin! I’ll kill you!” I say. He runs around the dining room table, and as I scurry across it, he heads out the door to the den, but he’s stopped at the doorway, and I see him struggling with someone.
I hear familiar high pitched squeaks, and Michael’s low toned grunts.
“Geez, Tess, what are you going to do, spoon me to death?”
That’s when I notice that Tess is beating Michael with a plastic mixing spoon.
“Tess! I tell you to grab a weapon and you grab a spoon?”
“What!” she replies. “It was the first thing I saw. And lucky for him I didn’t see butcher knife!” She has at him again, and I hear shrieks and screams from other parts of the house.
“Tess, cleaver!” I yelled, shaking it at her. “At least I can do some damage!”
I charge at Michael, but am pulled backwards by Alex who had come up behind me.
“Don’t kill him, Maria will freak!” he yells.
That’s the only thing stops me. Maria would freak if I could Michael.
She wouldn’t have a date to the prom.
Five minutes later, Max, Kyle, Alex and Michael are sitting on my parent’s couch. Maria is ranting and raving at them for scaring the daylights out of us.
It’s a really funny sight. They all have this black paint on their faces, and they’re dressed in black. They all look sort of scared. Well, actually, Alex looks downright frightened for his life.
I hope they’ve learned their lessons.
Oh, and I love Kyle and all, but I do hope he knows that payback sucks.
Howdy folks. This part is long overdue, sad yes, I know, considering the story is done. heee.
Pooh is now on my Myspace friends list, and I've been told, from the woman herself, that she is not above stalking. So I'm actually scared of what might happen if I don't post this. heee.
Enjoy!
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CHAPTER 12
~Isabel~
“Isabel Evans!” Maria walked up to the dressing room door and pounded on it, her hands on her hips. “If you do not get out here right this instant, I’m coming in!”
“Isabel, I can’t hold her back much longer!” Liz shouted. “She’ll come in and drag you out in your underwear, you know she will!”
“But I can’t figure this freaking thing out! There’s so many straps, and snaps, and….where the heck does this thing go?!”
Tess jumped up from her seat on the floor next to the dressing room. “I’ll help her, Maria. You stay here. No violence today, remember?”
I was waiting for Tess when I heard an eerily familiar..
Tess knocked on the door of my dressing room and turned the knob, going in. “I’m here to help,” she said.
“Whose idea was this?” Isabel muttered as she attempted to reach behind her to tie a strap.
“Yours, Isabel,” Tess said as she reached out and turned Isabel around so she could tie the strap behind her. “You wanted Liz to try the red dress. She wanted the black one. You suggested it would be fun to each pick a dress for the other girls to try on. Four dresses for each of us, and we have to pick from those dresses. Remember?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I forgot that Maria doesn’t exactly go with conventional.”
“You’re right,” Tess said sweetly. She smiled satisfactorily as she grabbed two of the ribbons from the front of my dress and pulled them hard, squeezing them tightly. I grunted at the loss of air. “That’s why the dress she’s picked out for me to try as soon as there’s an empty dressing room is orange.” Now, that made me laugh. Tess took that opportunity to pull the ribbons once more. “With feathers,” she added sweetly.
“Fine, fine, I’m sorry, but you’re going to kill me if you don’t stop pulling on those things!”
Hey! There will be no pulling of the anythings while you two are in there alone!
“Shut up, Liz!” I hollered.
“Isabel, this dress is gorgeous!”
Isabel turned around and stared at herself in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous. It was a deep crimson color, and strapless. The bodice was made up of two wide ribbons of fabric that came from the front of the dress, near my belly button, and criss-crossed in front, tying behind my neck and leaving the long flowing pieces to drape down my back. There were several more ribbons of fabric at different intervals on the front of the dress that tied behind my back. When I was all tied up, and the dress was on, I had four lines of fabric running across my back, and one around my neck, leaving several flowing strips of the soft fabric to float along behind me when I moved. The skirt was long and flowing, just barely skimming the top of the floor.
Without realizing it, I let out a deep, resigned breath.
“Oh, Isabel, you don’t like it?” Tess asked, concerned.
“It’s not that, Tess,” I said.
“Is it really too tight? I can undo it some,” Tess replied.
I shook my head. “It’s not too tight.”
Tess shook her head, worried. “Is it the color?”
I let out a deep sigh. “It’s not the dress,” I said, trying my best to make my bottom lip quiver.
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I just realized I have to tell Maria she was right about this dress, her head is going to double in size!”
We both started giggling uncontrollably. After a few seconds, Tess opened the door and E stepped out behind her.
“Oh. My. Freaking. Goodness! Kyle Valenti is going to crap in his pants when he sees you in that dress!” Liz exclaimed.
“Not to mention that he’ll hate me when it comes time for him to untie all those ribbons to get that thing off of you!”
“Maria!” I chided. “Maria, Kyle and I are not sleeping together. Neither one of us is ready for that, and we’re happy the way we are.”
“Well, you may not be sleeping together,” Maria said. “But he’ll sure want to when you sees you in that.”
I was about to respond when the dressing room door next to theirs opened, and three familiar faces paraded out.
“But really, Pam, does this make my butt look big?”
Maria scoffed and rolled her eyes. “It ain’t the dress, honey. I mean, does the elephant make the zoo look big?”
I had to bite my tongue. Pam and her minions all stand there looking at Maria with these “Oh, no she didn’t” looks on their faces, but none of them want to say anything back. Pam looks like a fish, cause her mouth keeps opening and closing, but there’s no sound coming out. Maria just stands there, staring them down. Finally, Pam huffs and stomps her foot. Then they all three turn around and walk out. It’s only a few seconds later when we hear the alarms at the front door go off. We peeked out of the dressing room, and notice Pam red faced, and looking totally embarrassed. Looks like she forgot to take the dress off before she stomped out.
An hour and a half later, we all leave the store, prom dresses in hand. Looks like Maria was right, and as much as I don’t want to tell her, I let her know she did a great job in picking out our dresses.
“Thank you,” she says back. “I’ll accept cash, credit, or endless flattery.”
~Kyle~
“Pssst, hey, Max,” I said, motioning him over.
“Did he move it?”
Max looks at me weird and raises an eyebrow. “Did he move what?” he asks slowly.
“You know,” I said. I looked around to make sure the tailor wasn’t around. “It.”
“Kyle, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I rolled my eyes. “Max, didn’t you watch Friends? That one episode where Joey went to the tailor’s shop and—“
I stopped talking when Max busted out laughing. “You watch Friends?” he asks.
“Max! This is not funny! I’m having serious man-issues here!”
Max tries to put on a somber face, but I can tell he wants to laugh at me. By the time I finish explaining, he’s laughing so hard that he can hardly talk back to me.
“No,” Max says. “He---is---not---going---to---to---tomoveit!” He finishes in one breath, and busts out laughing. He’s still laughing when Michael and Alex walk out from the back room. He calls them over, and when the man calls my name, and says he’s ready for me, I hear all three of them snicker as I walk past.
“So, Kyle, what kind of tux are you looking for?” the man asks me.
He’s a cool looking guy. Doesn’t look like a sicko or anything. But I’ve never been fitted for a tux before, and I’m a bit apprehensive.
“Uh, black?”
The man nods his head.
“Tails?”
I swallow thickly. Did he just ask about my tail? “Huh?” It’s comes out like a squeak.
“Your tux,” he said. “Traditional, or tails in the back?”
I don’t know what tails are, but it doesn’t sound cool, and Isabel will kill me if my pants have something hanging from them. “Traditional.”
He nods again. “How tall are you, and how much do you weigh?”
“Five seven, and about 180?”
The man nods again, and he’s gone. I’m nervous waiting for him to come back. I’m afraid that I’ll end up like Joey. It’s a scary thought. I mean, if it happened to Joey, it could happen to me, right? I swear, if the tailor touches it, I’ll probably smack him. Or if—
“Okay, let me see it.”
He wants to see it!?!?!?! I choke on my thoughts, and whirl around, to see the man standing behind me. He’s turned in the opposite direction. “Give it here,” he said, and I see an arm reach out and hand him three tuxedos.
“Here,” he said. “Try these on.”
Half an hour later, I’m out the door, with a tuxedo, shoes, and my manhood all intact.
Proms suck.
~Isabel~
Things have been going really well for me and Kyle. It’s been a couple months, and we’re still going strong. You would think that it’s weird dating your best friend, but it’s really not. We already knew everything about each other. And we didn’t have to do any of that awkward getting to know you stuff. Not even our parents were surprised. Kyle’s dad kept giving us the “I told you so” look the first time we told him we were together, and it was really funny, cause it was embarrassing Kyle.
Our friends teased us at first. Mercilessly. But it’s over, and everyone is used to the idea.
“Hey, Isabel. You and Farmer Bob going bowling with us tonight?”
My first thought: Who is Farmer Bob?
Kyle walks through the door, and I spit out the mouthful of milk I was about to swallow.
My second thought: I hope that’s a corn cob.
Kyle has on overalls, with hay hanging out of every pocket visible. He’s got on a straw hat with a piece of wheat sticking out of it. Under his overalls is a red and white plaid shirt, and he’s got on heavy work boots. There is a suspicious looking object in the front pocket of his overalls that I’m too afraid to ask about.
“Kyle, you are not going out in public in that?”
Kyle shrugs. “We made a bet,” he says sheepishly. “Me and Michael bet Max and Alex that we could beat them on a Nintendo game. The losers had to wear whatever costumes the winners picked out for them to the bowling alley tonight.”
“Wait a minute. Did you say Michael? What does he-”
Maria stops off mid-sentence when Michael walks in.
This time, I crack up laughing. Michael has on green tights, and shoes with little bells on them. He’s got on a green leotard with long green sleeves, and for the first time ever in my life, I notice that Michael Guerin isn’t such a little boy. As if the outfit wasn’t enough, he’s got on a green triangle shaped hat with a red feather in it. And the scowl on his face is priceless.
“Oh. My. Gosh.” Maria says. She’s staring at Michael, her mouth wide open, but I know what’s coming next. The corners of her mouth are already twitching.
“One snicker from you, Tinkerbell, and it’s on,” he grunts.
Maria can’t hold it any longer, and erupts into laughter. Michael glares at her and darts around the table to grab her, but she’s too quick.
As Maria’s squeals echo throughout the house, I hear Michael’s shoes ringing as he runs after her.
“I don’t get it, Kyle. You have every Nintendo ever made. You have all 3 Playstations, and 2 X-boxes. How could you lose?”
He sighs. “They challenged us to a game of Jeopardy, Isabel!”
That’s when I crack up laughing, and end up running down the hall myself.
~Kyle~
We were only at the bowling alley for about thirty minutes before the guys took mercy on Michael and let him take his costume off. He made me go to the Wal-Mart across the street to buy him some jeans and a t-shirt. I argued with him, but he argued that he had to be Peter Pan while I at least got to look like a man. So I relented and let the poor guy out of his misery.
Isabel went with me, and she talked me out of buying the pink ‘Vote for Pedro’ shirt. I wasn’t going to give in, but Isabel started fluttering her lashes and giving me the puppy dog eyes.
Michael is so lucky that Isabel is so cute.
“You’re lucky Isabel was with me,” I tell him when we get back to the bowling alley. I throw him the bag, and he opens it and takes his clothes out.
“Why is that?” he asks.
“I wanted to get the pink “Vote for Pedro” shirt. Napoleon Dynamite is the man.”
“Kyle, if you had come back with that shirt, I would have had to napoleon dynamite your rear end.”
“Ouch, Maria,” that hurts, I said, backing away slowly.
“I hate Napoleon Dynamite,” she said. “And I’d rather date Peter Pan.”
“Hey!”
Maria turns to Michael. He’s scowling at her.
“But don’t worry, Mikey,” she says. “I like you just the way you are most of all.”
Michael’s eyes immediately soften, and he grins at her.
That was so cheesy. I can’t believe he fell for it.
We headed to our lane to bowl. I can’t help but grimace when I notice Pam and a bunch of other girls from school a few lanes down. I hope this is an uneventful night.
“So, where do you want to go eat before the prom?”
Bowling is over, and all the guys have gone home to take the girls back. Isabel and I are sitting on her front porch, talking for a few minutes. We’re on the porch swing, and I’m sitting sideways. She’s in front of me with her head against my chest, and my arms are around her waist.
“It doesn’t really matter, Kyle,” she said. “I’m so excited, we could eat at McDonald’s and I would be happy.”
“I really love Big Mac’s.”
Her head turned, like 360 degrees and she elbowed me in the stomach. Hard.
“Kyle Valenti, that better be a joke, because I am not eating at McDonald’s before my prom!”
“But you said you didn’t really care where we ate!” I said in defense.
“Kyle! I didn’t really mean it! It was just something I said to flatter you! I hate McDonald’s, and you know that!”
“That’s grounds for a break up, woman.”
Isabel’s eyes get wide then, and her mouth opens in a big “O”. She doesn’t say another word. She closes her mouth, and her eyes well up with tears. She gets up off the swing, and heads in the front door.
“So does that mean you really don’t want to go to McDonald’s?” I holler.
She answers me by slamming the door in my face.
I guess she didn’t like my joke.
I only sit there for about two more minutes. I thought she’d come back, but she didn’t. I open the front door and stick my head in. She’s sitting on the bottom step, with her arms on her knees, and her head in her arms.
“Isabel?”
“What took you so long to come after me?” she whispers.
I shake my head, wondering what’s wrong, and sit next to her on the steps.
“Pam cornered me at the bowling alley,” she says quietly.
“Isabel--”
“She said that I was stupid for not having sex with you. She said that you would leave me for someone that would put out, and it was only a matter of time.”
I closed my eyes and sighed. I looked at her, and reached underneath her chin to make her look up at me.
“Isabel, don’t you get it by now? I am absolutely, head over heels crazy in love with you. I know everything about you, and probably more than a boyfriend should know about his girlfriend.”
She raises her eyebrows and gives me a “Watch it, mister” Maria Deluca look.
“We’ve been best friends forever,” I explain to her.
She gets it and nods her head.
“Sex doesn’t have anything to do with why I am with you. I love you because you make me laugh. I love you because you like to eat with your fingers. I love you because you actually know what first down is, and that the Braves play baseball, and not basketball. I love you because you always eat the walnuts off of my Sunday, because you know I hate them. I love you because you…well, because you’re you.”
“Oh, Kyle, I love you too,” she says, then she kisses me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I do register the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever said I love you in more than a best friend way, and its never felt more natural to me.
She pulls away and starts to wipe at her eyes.
“I guess I over reacted a moment ago,” she said sheepishly. “I guess I let her get to me, and what you said just rubbed me the wrong way.”
“I could rub you the right way.”
She throws her head back and laughs then, and it’s a beautiful sound.
“In all seriousness, we really do need to decide where we want to go eat,” she said.
“Well, I was just joking about McDonald’s,” I said.
“I know you were,” she replied as we turned sideways to sit on the steps the same way we were on the porch swing outside.
“I mean, there’s always Burger King.”
~Isabel~
When Kyle finally went home, I called Liz. She wasn’t home yet, so I called Maria, who was just getting home. We called Tess on three way, and we decided to have a sleep over. Last minute hang out. They all decided we’d do it at my house, since last time it was at Liz’s house, and Maria’s mom was repainting. Again. Added to that was the fact that my parents had gone to the beach house for the weekend.
An hour later, we’d tracked Liz down and we were all in my room. I sent Max to Kyle’s for the night, even though he tried his hardest to make an excuse to stay here since Liz was here. She finally had to take him in a corner and talk to him. Maria asked her what she said to make him leave so fast, but I stopped her. I did not want to know what Liz Parker promised my brother to make him smile like that.
“Hey, guys, you want to hear something terrible?”
They all crowded around into a circle, and I told them what happened, starting with Pam confronting me at the bowling alley.
When I was done, they were all upset. Maria was mad because Pam actually had the nerve to tell me that Kyle would break up with me if I didn’t sleep with him. Liz was mad because I hadn’t told them about it when it happened. And Tess was mad because she didn’t like McDonald’s or Burger King.
We were plotting our revenge on Pam and company when we heard a suspicious sounding whooping from outside the window.
“What is that?” Maria asked.
We all jumped to the windows to look out. It was dark outside, and we couldn’t see anything.
When we heard a high pitched yell, I jumped up and turned off the bedroom light so we could see.
It was dark outside, and it seemed like there were no lights on on the entire street.
“There’s someone in the bushes!” Liz whispered.
“Where?” I asked.
“Holy Crap, it’s someone trying to break into Kyle’s house!” Maria whispered back. “Warn him!”
“His car’s gone!” Tess said. “He and Max must have gone out. Oh no, they’re going to steal his Playstation!”
We watched, as two figures, dressed in black made their way around the side of Kyle’s house. We waited, knowing that when they busted the window, the alarm would ring. But when the two figures huddled together and took off running towards our house, the crap hit the fun.
“Call the FBI!” Tess whispered loudly.
“No, the firefighters!” Maria whispered.
I looked at her and even in the dim light of the street lamp from outside my window, she could see my confused look.
“What?” She asked in hushed tones. “Firefighters are always hot, and if I get attacked and need mouth to mouth, he better be cute!”
“Come on, we need to make sure the doors are locked!” I say excitedly. My heart is beating a mile a minute, and I silently curse myself for making Max leave.
Seconds later, we’re in the kitchen, and I make my way to the kitchen door.
“Did you hear that?” Maria asked. Her eyes are wide and her pupils shining in the dim light. We listen carefully, and hear a soft clicking sound.
“Someones in the house, quick, grab a weapon!” I reach behind me and grab a meat cleaver from the canister on the cabinet.
We’re all standing there like idiots when we hear a low growl from the other side of the kitchen door. It doesn’t take us long to panic, and we scream, running in four different directions.
I head out the kitchen door into the living room, Maria heads out the back door, Liz heads into the basement, and Tess leaves through the side door into the den.
When I run around the table and hit a hard body, I swing the cleaver with all my might, and scream. Someone grabs my arm and wrestles the cleaver from my hand. I start to pummel them with my fist.
“Holy Crap, Isabel, what are you doing!?”
I stop pounding with my fists and dive towards the light switch.
“Michael Guerin! I’ll kill you!” I say. He runs around the dining room table, and as I scurry across it, he heads out the door to the den, but he’s stopped at the doorway, and I see him struggling with someone.
I hear familiar high pitched squeaks, and Michael’s low toned grunts.
“Geez, Tess, what are you going to do, spoon me to death?”
That’s when I notice that Tess is beating Michael with a plastic mixing spoon.
“Tess! I tell you to grab a weapon and you grab a spoon?”
“What!” she replies. “It was the first thing I saw. And lucky for him I didn’t see butcher knife!” She has at him again, and I hear shrieks and screams from other parts of the house.
“Tess, cleaver!” I yelled, shaking it at her. “At least I can do some damage!”
I charge at Michael, but am pulled backwards by Alex who had come up behind me.
“Don’t kill him, Maria will freak!” he yells.
That’s the only thing stops me. Maria would freak if I could Michael.
She wouldn’t have a date to the prom.
Five minutes later, Max, Kyle, Alex and Michael are sitting on my parent’s couch. Maria is ranting and raving at them for scaring the daylights out of us.
It’s a really funny sight. They all have this black paint on their faces, and they’re dressed in black. They all look sort of scared. Well, actually, Alex looks downright frightened for his life.
I hope they’ve learned their lessons.
Oh, and I love Kyle and all, but I do hope he knows that payback sucks.
I once heard that dust is made up of human skin cells. If that's true, I think there's a naked man under my bed!
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ISLANDGIRL5
- Forum Moderator
- Posts: 346
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Okay, this is it folks. The final chapter. The end.
This story was so much fun to write, for so many reasons. One, mainly, Kyle.
Anyone who knows me knows that I *heart* Kyle. Another reason, is that I love the In-Crowder ship, and it was so much fun to write them out of character. Three--This was my first UC fic, and it was sooooooo much different then any other I've written.
Last but not least, the best reason this story was so fun to write was because of you guys. Your feedback, and your comments on this story have really made my day. I love you guys, and I thank you immensely for sticking around for this one.
PS...welcome, Mom! Glad you were talked into checking this out!!!
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Objects in The Mirror,
Part 13.
~Isabel~
Okay. Planning my prom has been the highlight of study hall for the past year. Seriously. While Mr. Seligman was readjusting his planets and seeing stars, I was figuring out my hair style and what my shoes would look like.
And eww….I meant the plastic planets on the solar system display, and the paper stars he’s got hanging from the planets.
So, when the night finally arrived, I was ready. Right down to the tic-tacs in my purse, and the sandpaper on the heel of my high heels to keep me from slipping.
So, why are my friends running around like chickens with their heads cut off?
Liz is bouncing around the room with one shoe and half her dress on, trying to get the other shoe strapped.
Maria and Tess are fighting over the can of hairspray that Serena brought.
And Serena is pointing at them and spouting off Star Wars quotes with Alex’s light saber in hand.
Yes, we are a weird bunch. No, we are not high or drunk.
Serena’s going to the prom with Sean. No big surprise. They’ve been hanging out with us every time we go anywhere. Scott is already downstairs with his date, a girl named Courtney that he met when he took his dog to the vet’s office.
I tease him about that. “Hi, my dog is sick, can I have your phone number?”
We told him that she better not be a hoochie mama, she better not dress like a hippie, and she better be willing to listen to whatever it is we pick in the limo. I mean, she’s a guest, so we have rights. Right?
When they get here, we’ll all pile into the limo that the guys rented. Yes, they did manage to get a limo.
Exactly twenty seven minutes, one panty hose emergency, five squirts of Binaca, and one very frantic phone call to the restaurant announcing our late arrival later, we pile downstairs to five very anxious high school boys.
Their first words:
Kyle: “Isabel, I always knew you were beautiful, but tonight….” He never finished, cause I had my lips on his in a second.
Max: “Liz, I can only imagine you will ever be more beautiful on our wedding day.” Yes, sickening.
Alex: “Tess, you’re so much better than my blow-up doll.”
Sean: “Hot dog, am I lucky I got the new girl!”
Scott: “And those are the girls you’ll spend all night trying to impress,” he tells his date.
Michael: “Maria, what did you do to your hair?”
I hear the sound of skin to skin contact, and can only think that that must have hurt.
Tonight is definitely going to be memorable.
~Kyle~
Dude!
My girl is hot!
As soon as Isabel comes down the stairs.
I guess that we all stare at them like idiots, because soon they’re all looking at us funny.
“Well?” Isabel asked.
Oh Crap. What did she just ask me?
“Kyle Valenti! Are you listening to me?” She’s got her hands on her hips, and she’s glaring at me.
“Yes?” I answered hesitantly.
“Well, then tell me where. Because, I swear, Kyle, if you really did plan for us to eat at McDonalds, your meal will definitely not be Happy!”
Oh. She must have asked me where we are eating. It was after all, my part of the night to plan.
I planned dinner. Max got the limo. Sean was handling stocking the limo with snacks and sodas. Michael was supposed to burn some mix cd’s. Alex was in charge of getting all the corsages from the florist. Scott was in charge of making sure we had a place to party after the prom.
Yes, the girls gave us tasks. Work, on prom night. As if figuring what button goes in what hole, and exactly how to put cuff links on one of these penguin suits we’re wearing isn’t work enough.
Back to topic.
“We’re going to the Barn,” I said.
The girls all look at each other, silently, and their eyes get huge.
“I’m sorry!” I said in defense. I feel it coming. They’re looking at me, poised to attack. In about 13 seconds, I’ll probably be pommeled with purses and hit with flying high heels. “My dad said it was good, and the man I talked—“
“The Barn! Eeeeek!”
That’s Maria.
“Isabel Evans, your man is a Keeper!” She says.
That’s good, right?
~Isabel~
Dinner was pretty uneventful.
Alex threw a roll at Max and knocked over the candle, catching the napkin dispenser on fire.
Tess stopped up one of the toilets in the bathroom, and we hauled butt out of the bathroom when it started spewing water.
Liz accidentally tripped the waiter with the hem of her dress, and he spilled chocolate cake on the old couple at the next booth.
And Michael broke the back leg on his chair when he kept leaning back in it to talk to Kyle around Maria’s head.
But that’s just a normal day for us. Other than that, dinner was pretty uneventful.
The ride to the prom was fun, though. We talked the limo driver into taking us the long way so that we could open the sunroof and roll down the windows. Michael has always had this weird fantasy of rescuing Maria like Richard Gere did Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, so after more bribing, and giving up his latest Metallica CD and a pack of Starburst bubble gum, he talked the driver into that one too. We couldn’t find a balcony, though. So she climbed onto a dumpster behind Wal-Mart and the driver rode Michael around the store while he hung out of the sun roof. When he got to the dumpster, Michael jumped up and kissed her, and Maria proclaimed him her hero. I was waiting for one of them to slip and fall in, because that would have been so funny. But they both made it to the ground safely.
We were jamming to some Rap music when these well dressed refined looking women pulled up next to us.
Alex and Kyle slipped Vanilla Ice into the CD player, and for 30 seconds, until the light turned green, the women gave us dirty looks while Vanilla Ice sang about ‘cooking MC’s like a pound of bacon.’
Tess took a picture of their faces, and it’s going in the Prom scrapbook we’re going to make.
I suppose the highlight of the ride was when Liz dared the guys to moon some high schoolers from East Roswell, our rivals, as they drove by us on the way to their prom.
The boys, never one to back down, popped their butts up to the window, and let ‘em shine. The boys in the other car tried to retaliate, but by the time they got their butts up in the window, they ended up mooning a Roswell Police Officer. Needless to say, the Officer’s blue lights started flashing and their limo was pulled over.
Tess tried to get a picture of that, by hanging the camera out the window. But she only caught one butt, we’re not sure whose it is. Maria tried to talk them into pulling their pants down for us, so we could ‘match the butt’
It was too bad that they refused.
~Kyle~
They had the prom in the high school gym. Cheesy, right?
It looked like the prom of all prom nightmares.
Silver stars hanging from fishing string from the ceiling. Streamers starting in the corners and meeting in some big fancy ball of yarn looking thing in the center of the gym. There was silver tinsel, and white lights on the basketball goals. Even the bleachers had white ribbons and streamers all over them. It looked like a wedding reception for Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Way too girly, way too glittery, and way too…overdone.
We only spent about two hours there. Even the girls got sick of all the cheese after a while.
We ended up at McDonalds. That was fun, too. Mr. Parker is friends with one of the managers, so we went there and played on the playground in our suits and dresses.
That was fun, too, until Maria got stuck in the little slide at the top of the tower. Michael went up to help her out, and when he put his hand on her butt to push her through, she kicked him in the nose.
It didn’t break, but it did look kind of blue for the rest of the night.
Maria kept apologizing and saying she was sorry.
Liz kept making jokes that she did it on purpose so it would match her dress.
Sadly, I think that Michael believes Liz. He’s been jumping all night long every time Maria comes near him.
~Isabel~
I can’t believe it’s over.
Prom.
It’s that one moment in high school that you know will define your high school years. Everyone will remember everything about it. It’s the important things, the things that you’ll be able to tell your kids about that will stick with you.
What you wore.
What songs you danced to.
Who you danced with.
Who you kissed.
Who spiked the punch, and who drank too much cause they didn’t know.
It’s funny. I thought that Prom would be this big, enlightening experience.
But I realize that Prom night isn’t so special after all. It’s not the dress, or the songs, or the decorations that make it special.
It’s the people you spend it with.
I spent my prom night with the people who are my best and closest friends.
We’re all on the way to Tess’s house now, and we’re going to change into our swimsuits and have some fun in the pool in her backyard. We’re going to end our prom night like we end every other night.
Talking, and laughing, and making jokes.
Because that’s who we are, and that’s what we do.
We’ll run around for a while and chase each other. We’ll listen to Maria and Michael argue some, and we’ll all pretend to get sick over Max and Liz’s PDA’s.
Of course, the guys don’t know this, but before they make it to the pool, Maria, Tess, Liz and I will be laughing our heads off at them.
Someone accidentally washed their swimsuits in itching powder. Hmm. Wonder how that happened.
But right now, I’m just enjoying the feel of the air in my hair as we drive down the road in Max’s Jeep on the way to the Harding’s. Kyle and I are in the back, Liz and Max up front.
As we near a stop light, I look into the mirror, and I can’t help but smile at what I see.
It’s probably no surprise that it’s Kyle.
With his bright smile, his sparkling blue eyes, and his white teeth.
And his lips…the soft lips that I love to kiss that I can see in the reflection are dangerously close to that sensitive spot on my neck.
Oh!
This story was so much fun to write, for so many reasons. One, mainly, Kyle.
Anyone who knows me knows that I *heart* Kyle. Another reason, is that I love the In-Crowder ship, and it was so much fun to write them out of character. Three--This was my first UC fic, and it was sooooooo much different then any other I've written.Last but not least, the best reason this story was so fun to write was because of you guys. Your feedback, and your comments on this story have really made my day. I love you guys, and I thank you immensely for sticking around for this one.
PS...welcome, Mom! Glad you were talked into checking this out!!!
****************************
Objects in The Mirror,
Part 13.
~Isabel~
Okay. Planning my prom has been the highlight of study hall for the past year. Seriously. While Mr. Seligman was readjusting his planets and seeing stars, I was figuring out my hair style and what my shoes would look like.
And eww….I meant the plastic planets on the solar system display, and the paper stars he’s got hanging from the planets.
So, when the night finally arrived, I was ready. Right down to the tic-tacs in my purse, and the sandpaper on the heel of my high heels to keep me from slipping.
So, why are my friends running around like chickens with their heads cut off?
Liz is bouncing around the room with one shoe and half her dress on, trying to get the other shoe strapped.
Maria and Tess are fighting over the can of hairspray that Serena brought.
And Serena is pointing at them and spouting off Star Wars quotes with Alex’s light saber in hand.
Yes, we are a weird bunch. No, we are not high or drunk.
Serena’s going to the prom with Sean. No big surprise. They’ve been hanging out with us every time we go anywhere. Scott is already downstairs with his date, a girl named Courtney that he met when he took his dog to the vet’s office.
I tease him about that. “Hi, my dog is sick, can I have your phone number?”
We told him that she better not be a hoochie mama, she better not dress like a hippie, and she better be willing to listen to whatever it is we pick in the limo. I mean, she’s a guest, so we have rights. Right?
When they get here, we’ll all pile into the limo that the guys rented. Yes, they did manage to get a limo.
Exactly twenty seven minutes, one panty hose emergency, five squirts of Binaca, and one very frantic phone call to the restaurant announcing our late arrival later, we pile downstairs to five very anxious high school boys.
Their first words:
Kyle: “Isabel, I always knew you were beautiful, but tonight….” He never finished, cause I had my lips on his in a second.
Max: “Liz, I can only imagine you will ever be more beautiful on our wedding day.” Yes, sickening.
Alex: “Tess, you’re so much better than my blow-up doll.”
Sean: “Hot dog, am I lucky I got the new girl!”
Scott: “And those are the girls you’ll spend all night trying to impress,” he tells his date.
Michael: “Maria, what did you do to your hair?”
I hear the sound of skin to skin contact, and can only think that that must have hurt.
Tonight is definitely going to be memorable.
~Kyle~
Dude!
My girl is hot!
As soon as Isabel comes down the stairs.
I guess that we all stare at them like idiots, because soon they’re all looking at us funny.
“Well?” Isabel asked.
Oh Crap. What did she just ask me?
“Kyle Valenti! Are you listening to me?” She’s got her hands on her hips, and she’s glaring at me.
“Yes?” I answered hesitantly.
“Well, then tell me where. Because, I swear, Kyle, if you really did plan for us to eat at McDonalds, your meal will definitely not be Happy!”
Oh. She must have asked me where we are eating. It was after all, my part of the night to plan.
I planned dinner. Max got the limo. Sean was handling stocking the limo with snacks and sodas. Michael was supposed to burn some mix cd’s. Alex was in charge of getting all the corsages from the florist. Scott was in charge of making sure we had a place to party after the prom.
Yes, the girls gave us tasks. Work, on prom night. As if figuring what button goes in what hole, and exactly how to put cuff links on one of these penguin suits we’re wearing isn’t work enough.
Back to topic.
“We’re going to the Barn,” I said.
The girls all look at each other, silently, and their eyes get huge.
“I’m sorry!” I said in defense. I feel it coming. They’re looking at me, poised to attack. In about 13 seconds, I’ll probably be pommeled with purses and hit with flying high heels. “My dad said it was good, and the man I talked—“
“The Barn! Eeeeek!”
That’s Maria.
“Isabel Evans, your man is a Keeper!” She says.
That’s good, right?
~Isabel~
Dinner was pretty uneventful.
Alex threw a roll at Max and knocked over the candle, catching the napkin dispenser on fire.
Tess stopped up one of the toilets in the bathroom, and we hauled butt out of the bathroom when it started spewing water.
Liz accidentally tripped the waiter with the hem of her dress, and he spilled chocolate cake on the old couple at the next booth.
And Michael broke the back leg on his chair when he kept leaning back in it to talk to Kyle around Maria’s head.
But that’s just a normal day for us. Other than that, dinner was pretty uneventful.
The ride to the prom was fun, though. We talked the limo driver into taking us the long way so that we could open the sunroof and roll down the windows. Michael has always had this weird fantasy of rescuing Maria like Richard Gere did Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, so after more bribing, and giving up his latest Metallica CD and a pack of Starburst bubble gum, he talked the driver into that one too. We couldn’t find a balcony, though. So she climbed onto a dumpster behind Wal-Mart and the driver rode Michael around the store while he hung out of the sun roof. When he got to the dumpster, Michael jumped up and kissed her, and Maria proclaimed him her hero. I was waiting for one of them to slip and fall in, because that would have been so funny. But they both made it to the ground safely.
We were jamming to some Rap music when these well dressed refined looking women pulled up next to us.
Alex and Kyle slipped Vanilla Ice into the CD player, and for 30 seconds, until the light turned green, the women gave us dirty looks while Vanilla Ice sang about ‘cooking MC’s like a pound of bacon.’
Tess took a picture of their faces, and it’s going in the Prom scrapbook we’re going to make.
I suppose the highlight of the ride was when Liz dared the guys to moon some high schoolers from East Roswell, our rivals, as they drove by us on the way to their prom.
The boys, never one to back down, popped their butts up to the window, and let ‘em shine. The boys in the other car tried to retaliate, but by the time they got their butts up in the window, they ended up mooning a Roswell Police Officer. Needless to say, the Officer’s blue lights started flashing and their limo was pulled over.
Tess tried to get a picture of that, by hanging the camera out the window. But she only caught one butt, we’re not sure whose it is. Maria tried to talk them into pulling their pants down for us, so we could ‘match the butt’
It was too bad that they refused.
~Kyle~
They had the prom in the high school gym. Cheesy, right?
It looked like the prom of all prom nightmares.
Silver stars hanging from fishing string from the ceiling. Streamers starting in the corners and meeting in some big fancy ball of yarn looking thing in the center of the gym. There was silver tinsel, and white lights on the basketball goals. Even the bleachers had white ribbons and streamers all over them. It looked like a wedding reception for Cinderella and Prince Charming.
Way too girly, way too glittery, and way too…overdone.
We only spent about two hours there. Even the girls got sick of all the cheese after a while.
We ended up at McDonalds. That was fun, too. Mr. Parker is friends with one of the managers, so we went there and played on the playground in our suits and dresses.
That was fun, too, until Maria got stuck in the little slide at the top of the tower. Michael went up to help her out, and when he put his hand on her butt to push her through, she kicked him in the nose.
It didn’t break, but it did look kind of blue for the rest of the night.
Maria kept apologizing and saying she was sorry.
Liz kept making jokes that she did it on purpose so it would match her dress.
Sadly, I think that Michael believes Liz. He’s been jumping all night long every time Maria comes near him.
~Isabel~
I can’t believe it’s over.
Prom.
It’s that one moment in high school that you know will define your high school years. Everyone will remember everything about it. It’s the important things, the things that you’ll be able to tell your kids about that will stick with you.
What you wore.
What songs you danced to.
Who you danced with.
Who you kissed.
Who spiked the punch, and who drank too much cause they didn’t know.
It’s funny. I thought that Prom would be this big, enlightening experience.
But I realize that Prom night isn’t so special after all. It’s not the dress, or the songs, or the decorations that make it special.
It’s the people you spend it with.
I spent my prom night with the people who are my best and closest friends.
We’re all on the way to Tess’s house now, and we’re going to change into our swimsuits and have some fun in the pool in her backyard. We’re going to end our prom night like we end every other night.
Talking, and laughing, and making jokes.
Because that’s who we are, and that’s what we do.
We’ll run around for a while and chase each other. We’ll listen to Maria and Michael argue some, and we’ll all pretend to get sick over Max and Liz’s PDA’s.
Of course, the guys don’t know this, but before they make it to the pool, Maria, Tess, Liz and I will be laughing our heads off at them.
Someone accidentally washed their swimsuits in itching powder. Hmm. Wonder how that happened.
But right now, I’m just enjoying the feel of the air in my hair as we drive down the road in Max’s Jeep on the way to the Harding’s. Kyle and I are in the back, Liz and Max up front.
As we near a stop light, I look into the mirror, and I can’t help but smile at what I see.
It’s probably no surprise that it’s Kyle.
With his bright smile, his sparkling blue eyes, and his white teeth.
And his lips…the soft lips that I love to kiss that I can see in the reflection are dangerously close to that sensitive spot on my neck.
Oh!
Last edited by ISLANDGIRL5 on Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I once heard that dust is made up of human skin cells. If that's true, I think there's a naked man under my bed!